Today, tomorrow, forever

Plymouth Gin Distillery – Gin Tour

I recently visited Plymouth Gin Distillery on the Barbican, for one of their tours. This distillery has been in operation since 1793 and is the only one in the city. On arrival we headed into the reception. Here we received information regarding our tour, then shown the location of the toilets, Refectory restaurant, the bar and given a complementary voucher. This voucher entitles you to a free drink at the end of the tour or a free minature bottle of your choice.

Our tour guide for the afternoon (Annie) arrived and introduced herself then escorted us to a room where lockers were provided for our belongings. Following on from this we started our 2 and a half hour tour in the timeline room, giving us an extensive introduction to the history of Plymouth Gin. I was amazed by the timeline history attached to this famous drink. It dates back as far as the 1793 giving it a very interesting past.

Once we had completed the history timeline of this famous drink we headed on through to the gin distillery. The process of making the gin is very time consuming. The distillery makes on average 3 batches a week.

Leaving the distillery, we walked into an aladdins cave of 400 gins from around the world.

The Gin bar

The Gin bar

Whilst sat here around a horse shoe shaped bar we listened to the history of an array of different gins. Arranged in front of us were 5 glasses of gin, ready for the tasting experience. We added water to each glass and left it whilst we carried out a little experiment!! This involved sugar and a nose click… Can’t give too much away!!

The Gin bar & tasting session

Gin tasting experience

Gin tasting experience

Since gin has botanics added to it for flavour, we had the chance to smell 7 different botanics. This discussion was important as we were going to make our own gin later. Finally after discussing which botanics were in each gin, we were able to sample the gins and decide which gins we had been given. I was quite amazed that I managed to guess 3 correctly, not being a gin connoisseur myself. Once we had sampled our gins and tasted some delicious sloe gin it was time to make our own.

Therefore putting our knowledge to the test and to seeing what we remembered.

Some of the Botanics

Tour distilling machine

Here you will find many different botanics to make your very own gin. My gin contained juniper berries, coriander seeds, orange and lemon peel, cardamom, nutmeg, liquorice, ornis and angelic.

My Gin

After making our gin we decided to enjoy our complimentary drink in the bar. This was an amazing afternoon, I would highly recommend this experience.

I thoroughly enjoyed the tour and learnt so much about the history of gin, the process and came away with my own unquie bottle. I think this is a fantastic gift for anyone.